Tragedy At BIIBBF

It was a sombre festival as deep into the second day of the event, tragedy had struck. A participant of the Borneo Island International Big bike Festival (BIIBBF) from the Labuan Tourism Department had met his demised as the motorcycle that he was a passenger of lost control and hit a tree.

Organisers and participants had mourned for the death of their fellow participant, where although according to those who knew him, he had only started working for the Labuan Tourism office and this biker event was his first assignment covering a biker event. Labuan LA Riders the host and organiser of the BIIBBF this year said that this was regrettable, and it was a sad day for all involved.

The accident occurred when the BIIBBF were in a convoy touring the island of Labuan. According to eyewitness, they viewed that the way he was sitting on the trike (three whelled bike) was very dangerous as instead of facing the front he was facing the back and to make it worse he was kneeling down on the back seat. One biker who had witnessed it all said that the convoy was going very fast, which was not advisable especially when there’s a big convoy and riding on narrow streets of Labuan.

The rider of the trike was looking back whether it was to check on his passanger that was facing the wrong way or to see the convoy it was not certain. What happened next was inevitable, as the rider looked back, he had hit a patch of uneven road. This had caused the trike to lift up on two wheels. The rider who was already veering off the road, had a difficult time to get the bike under control, especially at speed. He had hit the curb and a small mound of construction debris by the side of the road, this had launched the trike in the air.

The rider and his passenger were thrown off the bike. The bike had hit a nearby tree, while the rider had narrowly missed a block of bricks, that was placed at the side of the road. His passenger however was not as lucky, where he had hit the block of brick square on. They were riding about 80km an hour. His fibreglass helmet had split in three places, while he had sustained serious injury. Ultimately he had surrounded to his injuries and perished on site after about 25 minutes struggling for life, before the ambulance had time to arrive.

The unfortunate incident was the first ever recorded death in the history of the BIIBBF. The accident scarred bikers, as well as the BIIBBF event. Most bikers commented that in hindsight organisers should have put more emphasising safety protocols, where an ambulance and safety personal ic would at all time follow the convoy. However the rider’s biking experience on a trike and the seating position of the victim had also shed a light to the possible cause of the accident.